Learning Swift

I officially began learning Swift yesterday, the new programming language for Mac OS and iOS applications. So far I have to say it’s the easiest language to learn from a syntax perspective, in that every other programming language had major stumbling blocks for me in the early stages, to the point where I gave up without ever building anything.

Up until now, I thought I’d be “only” ever be a web developer, which wouldn’t be a bad thing necessarily. But, I have wanted to learn how to create desktop applications for awhile and am finally jumping into that world.

So I’ll share what I’m learning as I go.

Starting With An Idea

It all started a few days ago when I had an idea to build a small menu bar app for Mac that would do some of the functions you can accomplish with a few lines of code in the Terminal. But since most normal people fear that program (and for good reason if you’re not a programmer), I thought it would be a good way to delve into the world of Mac programming.

However, yesterday was also the day that my idea had already been created in a free app already available in the Apple App Store.

Not Giving Up This Time

Even though my idea was already taken, I thought about ways it could be improved upon. And almost immediately, I thought it would still be worth going through the process of learning so that I’m ready when the next idea strikes. Which, hopefully, will come sooner because of the things I’m learning (funny how that happens).

Making Progress In Baby Steps

I’ll plan to post updates on this project frequently, as part of a way to measure my progress and also accelerate my learning (as it’s well-known that you naturally retain and comprehend more deeply what you share with others).

Needless to say I’m excited and already becoming more optimistic that I’ll finally be able to do this!